Many personal care products such as body wash, facial cleansing gel, hair shampoo, hair conditioner, face lotion and other personal care products that are currently available are provided as prepared formulations. A drawback of such products is that the user cannot alter the formulation to accommodate their
particular skin and hair characteristics, personal preferences, or to provide specialized treatment. A further drawback is the uncertainty of the age and freshness of the prepared formulation which may have been prepared many months or years before the product is sold.
Multiple-part product kits that contain separate components of e.g. a hair shampoo, hair conditioner, cosmetics, or other personal care products are available from many professional salons and some retail personal care outlets. However, the user is still unable to customize the individual formulations in light of the consumer""s unique personal care preferences and requirements.
Therefore, one aspect of the invention is to provide an apparatus that enables a user to formulate a variety of personal care product compositions to best suit the needs of the consumer. Another aspect of the invention is to provide an apparatus that is easy to use such that the user may be a lay-person who is able formulate a customized personal care product. Another aspect of the invention is to provide an apparatus with a plurality of customizing agent dispensing stations, and a plurality of personal care product base dispensing stations designed to efficiently prepare stable personal care product which are freshly blended while the consumer waits. Another aspect of the invention is to mix the typically viscous blends of personal care products in an efficient manner.
An apparatus is provided for preparing a customized, personal care product for a consumer typically at a location remote from a second location in which a personal care product base composition is prepared. The apparatus comprises a plurality of personal care base compositions each contained in dispensing station and variants from two or more classes of customizing agents each contained in a dispensing station. The consumer is allowed to select, in any sequence, one personal care base composition and at least two variants from separate classes of customizing agents, such as a fragrance and a benefit agent. The user doses, in any sequence, the consumer selected personal care base composition, customizing agents, and, if necessary, sufficient liquid vehicle into a container, mixes the contents until uniform, and labels the container using the inventive dispensing apparatus.
A sufficient quantity of a blank composition having substantially the same vehicle composition as that of the customizing agent may be dosed in the container if an insufficient number of customizing agents are selected by the consumer. This allows for maintaining the optimum concentration of product ingredients while providing many choices for the consumer in customizing the product.
The inventive dispensing apparatus is preferably used with personal care product base compositions including cleansing and conditioning product bases useful for formulating body wash, body lotion, body mist spray, hydroalcoholic toner, facial cleansing gel, waterless cleanser, hair shampoo, hair conditioner, face lotion and the like.